I like speculative fiction and political philosophy
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It's been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring …
"Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling series, The Murderbot Diaries, comes …
A breathtakingly ambitious retelling of the earliest human societies offers a new understanding of world …
I usually find Graeber's work a bit annoying as I agree with the conclusions, but I find his arguments for how to get there lacking. I had high hopes for this book as the premise was interesting. Unfortunately, this book was even more frustrating that his others. I enjoyed the critique of eurocentric views on civilization, and I liked that the book argues against a narrative of progress through feudal lords and then capitalism.
However, a main argument in the book is against the idea that large population governance is not inherently oppressive. I wholly reject this idea. The arguments Graeber and Wengrow make are hundreds of pages long and never get beyond "well there is no evidence of a monarchy so they must have had people's assemblies and been democratic." The city, they infer, is therefore a structure we can have without oppressive relations. There is then much advocating …
I usually find Graeber's work a bit annoying as I agree with the conclusions, but I find his arguments for how to get there lacking. I had high hopes for this book as the premise was interesting. Unfortunately, this book was even more frustrating that his others. I enjoyed the critique of eurocentric views on civilization, and I liked that the book argues against a narrative of progress through feudal lords and then capitalism.
However, a main argument in the book is against the idea that large population governance is not inherently oppressive. I wholly reject this idea. The arguments Graeber and Wengrow make are hundreds of pages long and never get beyond "well there is no evidence of a monarchy so they must have had people's assemblies and been democratic." The city, they infer, is therefore a structure we can have without oppressive relations. There is then much advocating for the city as a body politic.
I just don't see this as being likely or even desirable. The culture of the city and the community life that brings are something that I think can be valuable, but I find no need or desire for an overarching body politic for a physical space just because we conceive an arbitrary line around it. I don't care how "democratic" it is. I believe politics, justice, and governance are pluralistic and need to be worked out on a case by case basis, depending on context, and involve those effected.
Can we have a future with technology and high standards of living in such a pluralistic society? I think so, but admittedly it would look nothing like what we have now, and would not look like early agricultural adoption either. We can make the future what we want without trying to erect our pet political strategies onto a group of people living in a single location.
That's what's so frustrating I guess. The book begins to give us the space to dream of a possible future, but then just settles on another system of governance that is appropriated from an incomplete picture of some Indigenous groups and some early Europeans.
A breathtakingly ambitious retelling of the earliest human societies offers a new understanding of world history
For generations, our remote …
A breathtakingly ambitious retelling of the earliest human societies offers a new understanding of world history
For generations, our remote …
It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it …
It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it …
"The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some …
I loved the characters in this book. Enough so that I greatly look forward to the next in the series. I did find the story structure telling a little light, and it often reminded me of epic adult Scooby Doo. It's a hybrid of the jaded millennial reluctantly participating in society (but on their own terms) and a Shakespeare-ian 5-act play, where the protagonist forms a band who tries to unmask the monster clue by clue. The telling was still lots of fun. I guess it just felt like it couldn't decide if it was quirky pop comedy or something deeper.
"The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more …
"The Emperor needs necromancers.
The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman.
Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more …
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
A socially awkward, traumatized by PTSD, has executive dysfunction, and just wants to be free and watch entertainment streams ... Murderbot is very relatable.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved …
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
Finally getting around to this series :)
Wanderung zwischen den Zeiten
Der junge Lo Lobey ist ein Mutant. Er und andere seiner …
I have no idea what I just read, and I think that might be the point. It was beautiful though like an acid trip is beautiful. In this case it probably does have some slightly more profound meaning, but for now I kind of just feel like I'm coming down and everything is a little less real.
Wanderung zwischen den Zeiten
Der junge Lo Lobey ist ein Mutant. Er und andere seiner Art sind die neuen Erben …